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Policy Concerning Exemptions From Mandatory Electronic Filing

Any attorney seeking an exemption from the requirement of electronic filing and service of documents shall address such request in writing to the Court, care of the Clerk of Court. The request must contain reasons for the attorney’s inability to file documents electronically and estimate the time at which the attorney would be prepared to comply with the requirements of the Local Rules in this regard. The Court delegates the authority to grant or deny exemptions to the CM/ECF Implementation Task Force (Magistrate Judge Carmody, Deloy Johnson, Kelly Van Dyke) applying the criteria set forth below. Magistrate Judge Carmody will inform the attorney of the decision in writing. An attorney may seek review in writing by the Chief Judge. The Clerk’s Office will keep track of all requests and their disposition and will notify all chambers of exemptions granted or denied.

Criteria:

The Court expects that attorneys who have the following resources, or the means to obtain them, will comply with the requirements of the local rules for filing and serving documents electronically:

a personal computer;

access to the internet,

an e-mail account, and

word processing software.

If an attorney does not have the foregoing resources, and obtaining them would pose a hardship, the attorney may be exempted from the requirement of filing documents electronically. The attorney may nevertheless be required, if feasible, to file documents electronically or scan documents into the CM/ECF system at the Clerk’s Office using computer equipment provided by the Court.